Red Moscow

"One hundred and sixty-seven people?!" Sokov asked curiously after repeating the number: "Sergeant Vasily, I want to ask, how did you arrange so many people?"

"Comrade commander, although there are three basements in the building that can accommodate a hundred people, I didn't put all the people in the building." Vasily explained to Sukov: "A third of the troops are deployed in Outside the building, I made this arrangement because once the building fails, the people in the building will be able to evacuate to a safe area under the cover of the people outside the building."

Sokov originally praised Vasily, but when he heard that he planned to evacuate the building, he immediately sternly said, "Why, Sergeant Vasily, do you think you are not sure about holding the building?"

Vasily didn't notice Sokov's strangeness, instead he grinned and said, "Comrade Commander, the enemy has never stopped attacking the building. I always plan for the worst."

"Then where are you going to withdraw?" Sokov asked with a sneer, "Are you going to take your people and withdraw eastward to the other side of the Volga River?"

Vasily, who was belatedly aware of this, realized that Sokov was full of displeasure, and couldn't help shivering all over. Quickly and cautiously asked: "I don't know what you mean, sir...?"

"Although I have never asked you to not take a step back when you hold your ground. But for this building, I will make an exception." Sokov said with a serious expression: "Don't say that there are more than a hundred of you now, even if There are only ten people, and we must try our best to guard this building. Do you understand?"

"But under the shelling and bombing of the enemy, two-thirds of the building has collapsed." Regarding Sokov's somewhat unkind order, Vasily said awkwardly: "I think we can choose other options." complete buildings for defense..."

"Can other buildings be compared with this building?" Seeing that Vasily was concentrating on retreating, Sokov became more and more impatient. He didn't want this famous building, because of Vasily's decision , and became obscurity. He raised his voice and said: "This building has a wide view no matter it faces south, west, or north. It is an excellent artillery observation position. The east of the building is the Volga River. If the enemy occupies this building, they only need to Set up a general-purpose machine gun at the window, and you can blockade the ferry in the distance with firepower."

Faced with Sokov's criticism, Vasily could not help but bow his head. He felt that he had considered the problem too simply. He only thought about evacuating the people in the building to other buildings for defense when he could not defend, but he forgot In addition, this building has a unique geographical advantage. As long as one's own people stay in the building, a huge area can be sealed off, making it difficult for the enemy to pass through safely.

"I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I was wrong." After waiting for Sokov to finish speaking, Vasily looked up at him and expressed his determination: "I will definitely devote my energy to defending the building. Give up lightly."

"Sergeant Vasily, it's right for you to have such an attitude." Seeing that Vasily realized his mistake, Sokov's tone became much more relaxed: "Sooner or later we will launch a counterattack against the enemy. With such a If you go out to the building inside the enemy's line of defense, you can quickly tear apart the enemy's line of defense. Do you understand?"

"Comrade commander," Andrei sat next to him when Sokov reprimanded Vasily, and he didn't even dare to vent his breath. Seeing that Sokov had finished speaking, he stood up and said respectfully: "This building is surrounded by three sides. Surrounded by the German army, it is not safe for you to stay here, you should return to Mamayev Post as soon as possible.”

"Comrade Captain," Sokov looked up at Andrei standing in front of him, and said to him, "If you have something to do in the battalion, you want to go back. I plan to stay here for a day and see the soldiers in the building. how they fought."

Seeing that Sokov had issued an order to expel him, Andrei knew that it was meaningless for him to stay in the Vasily Building any longer, so he nodded and said goodbye to Sokov. Before leaving the door, he specifically told Vasily: "Comrade Sergeant, I handed over the division commander to you, and you must ensure his safety. Do you understand?"

Vasily naturally understood the importance of Sokov to the whole division, so after hearing Andrei's order, he quickly and loudly replied: "Comrade battalion commander, please rest assured that even if we sacrifice our lives, we will ensure that Master's safety."

"All right, all right, don't say these things are useless. The guard platoon brought by Seriosha will ensure my safety, so don't worry about it." The two people's concern for themselves made Sokov feel It was warm, but he pretended to be nonchalant on the surface, waved to Andre and said, "Comrade Captain, hurry back to the battalion command post."

After sending Andrei away, Sokov asked Vasily to sit down and asked with concern: "Comrade Sergeant, there must be a lot of wounded people in the building, where you fight the enemy every day, how did you arrange them? "The reason why he asked this was entirely because he occasionally thought of Shulka lying on the bench.

"Yes, we have wounded people appearing almost every day, but fortunately their injuries are not serious." Vasily said relaxedly: "We have enough medicines in stock here, and there are also nurses from the Flour Mill Hospital, they can Treat our wounded."

"Here, treating the wounded?" Sokov asked tentatively, "Do you have enough medicine?"

"Comrade commander, you don't have to worry about this." Vasily continued: "Since they saw that the enemy's fierce attack on the building for a week was repelled by us, they suddenly gained confidence and went to the factory hospital at night. From the ruins, usable medical equipment and medicines were moved out."

"Since there are enough medicines and nurses." Sokov pointed to the direction where Shulka was lying, and asked, "Why can't even the bullets in Shulka's legs be taken out?"

Sokov's question made Vasily feel a little embarrassed: "Comrade commander, what I said is that there are nurses and enough medicines in the building, but there are no doctors. All the doctors in the hospital, when the enemy started to attack Stalingrad , have all been transferred to the army, leaving only a few nurses in the factory hospital.”

After figuring out what was going on, Sokov said to Vasily: "Comrade Sergeant, if you encounter wounded people who cannot be treated in the future, you must send someone to Mamayev Post. The military doctors in our health team can do it for the wounded. Operation."

"I remember, Comrade Commander." Vasily nodded vigorously, and replied, "I will definitely obey your orders."

As soon as Vasily finished speaking, a four or five-year-old boy walked in from outside the house. Holding two enamel teapots in one hand and a ceramic teapot in the other, he staggered to Sokov's house. In front of him, he tried his best to raise the teapot and tea mug in his hand above his head, and said to Sokov: "Comrade commander, please drink tea!"

Sokov took the teapot and tea mug from the child, put them on the table, picked up the child, put it on his lap, and asked Vasily, "Comrade Sergeant, where did this child come from?" of?"

"He is an orphan." Hearing Sokov's question, Vasily's face became sad: "When I went on a sniper mission, I met a difficult opponent, and I dealt with it for several days. No one can do anything to anyone. One day I asked a soldier to act as my assistant and continued to search for this enemy. I saw a woman with a child emerging from the ruins and tentatively approaching our building. Who knew he Just a few steps away, he was killed by a bullet from an enemy sniper. When the child saw his mother was killed, he lay on the woman's body and wept. My assistant was afraid that the child would be in danger, so he was desperate ran out of hiding and tried to get the child back..."

Hearing that Vasily's words stopped abruptly in the middle, Sokov felt an ominous premonition. In order to confirm his conjecture, he hurriedly asked: "This assistant of yours just rushed out like this, why not?" Is there any danger?"

The muscles on Vasili's face twitched violently twice, and he continued: "He was killed by a hidden German sniper before he ran to the child's side. But his sacrifice has a price, let me see clearly I found the hiding place of the enemy sniper, and I shot him and killed him. After the danger was eliminated, I left the hiding place and went to bring back the body of the child and my assistant."

"Since the outbreak of the war in this city, countless orphans have appeared. Only when we completely defeat the enemy can we avoid more orphans." After finishing speaking, Sokov looked at Vasily and asked: "Comrade Sergeant ,Do you agree?"

"That's right, Comrade Commander, you are right. Only when the enemy is completely wiped out can we achieve peace, and no children will become orphans because of the loss of their parents." After Vasily finished speaking, he hesitated for a moment , and then hesitantly asked Sokov: "Comrade Commander, when you return to Mamayev Post, can you take this child away with you? You know, this is always a battlefield, and I don't know if I can survive to victory." On this day, if something happens to me, there will be no one to take care of the child."

For Vasily's request, Sokov agreed without hesitation: "Don't worry, Sergeant Vasily, I will definitely bring this child back to Mamayev Hill safely, and if necessary, arrange for someone to take him to the Mamayev Hill." Send it out of the city, to a place of safety."

…………

A few hours later, it was dawn.

Sokov, who was dozing on the table, suddenly felt the ground trembling slightly, and then heard the roar of the tank engine. The enemy attacked? ! The thought flashed through his mind, and immediately scared the sleepy bug out of sight. He sat up straight suddenly, and asked Vasily who was sitting opposite: "Comrade Sergeant, what happened, what's the matter with the roar of the tank engine outside?"

"Report to Comrade Division Commander!" Vasily put down the phone in his hand and reported to Sokov: "The observation post on the roof reported that a German army passed by a block not far away."

"Is the German army passing by?" After listening to Vasily's answer, Sokov pondered for a moment, and then decisively ordered Vasily: "Take me upstairs to have a look."

Vasily led Sokov along the bombed-out stairs to the roof. Sokov looked in the direction of the sound, and there was indeed a group of enemies marching on the block more than a hundred meters away. In addition to tanks and armored vehicles, there are also many infantry. Probably because they were worried about the blow from the building, the soldiers were marching close to the ruins on one side of the building. Even Sokov, who was standing on the top of the building, could only see the shaking helmets appearing constantly between the ruins.

After looking at it for a while, Sokov turned his head and asked Vasily: "Comrade Sergeant, do the enemies pass by your building occasionally, or do they often pass by here?"

Vasily hesitated for a moment, and replied: "Every two or three days, you can see the enemy's fast column passing this street ahead."

"Since the enemy is passing under your nose, Comrade Sergeant, I would like to ask," Sokov asked calmly, "Have you taken any measures?"

"No." Vasily shook his head and replied, "A comrade once suggested to snipe the enemy from the roof, but I was worried that the enemy would be fired or bombed, so I vetoed the other party's proposal."

After hearing Vasily's answer, Sokov was a little annoyed: "Comrade Sergeant, are you just watching the enemy pass by you because you are worried about being retaliated by the enemy, and remain indifferent?"

Seeing that Sokov was angry again, Vasily asked cautiously, "Comrade commander, what should we do?"

"What else can I do? Immediately send a few mortars and a few general-purpose machine guns to the roof." Sokov pointed to the German column in front, and said to Vasily: "Although the ruins block the sight of snipers, they can block Don't hold the mortar shells. Shoot the enemy's marching columns with mortars, destroy as many as you can, and never let them pass through your defense zone so easily. Understand?"

"Understood, Comrade Commander." After Vasily finished speaking, he stretched out his hand to grab the phone next to him, and gave an order into the microphone: "Second Lieutenant Chernushenko's mortar team, immediately take your mortars to the building. Come on; in addition, Lieutenant Afanasyev's machine gun platoon also moved two general-purpose machine guns to the roof..."

With Vasily's order, mortars and general-purpose machine guns were placed on the roof without much effort. Seeing that the soldiers were getting ready, Sokov pointed at the marching German column with his hand, and said loudly: "First use mortars to bombard the enemy's column, and when the enemy's infantry starts to run around, the machine guns will continue to shoot. I will give you five minutes, and when the time is up, no matter how many enemies you have eliminated, you will immediately evacuate to the basement."

"Comrade commander, I don't understand, why only give us five minutes?" Second Lieutenant Chernushenko asked puzzledly: "We can definitely bombard for a longer time."

Sokov glared at the other party and said, "Second lieutenant, do you think the Germans are fools? Their infantry has been attacked by artillery fire, and tanks and armored vehicles will be doing nothing beside them? After our shelling mission is over, we will not move immediately. To a safe place, are you still going to stay where you are and wait for the enemy's shells?"